I took the first duty shift, although I was not in any way qualified as a pilot, Skippy had programmed two emergency jumps, and all I would need to do is press a button if trouble appeared. While I sat in the pilot couch, which was too small for Desai and way too cramped for me, I began writing up an after action report on my iPad. Someday, hopefully, I would need to report to authorities on Earth all that had happened, and it was best to do that while it was still fresh in my mind. Damn, there was a lot to write down. I was only halfway through when Chang relieved me three hours later, and I was able to stagger back to my assigned quarters, close to the bridge. After I kicked me shoes off and scrunched up in the small bed, I couldn’t get to sleep. Rather than lay there uselessly, I sat up, turned the light on, and began tapping away on my iPad.

Skippy’s voice came from the iPad’s speakers. “Colonel Joe, you should be sleeping.”

“I have a lot to do, Skippy. Like planning a memorial service for the three people we lost. I don't even know the proper ceremony for Taoism or Hindus." I frowned. The truth was, guilt was keeping me from sleeping.

"Hindu tradition is cremation." Skippy chipped in helpfully. "I have all available data on human religious rituals."

"Oh, uh, thanks, Skippy." I could ask Chang and Desai what to do about their countrymen. Matheson's body would remain in storage until we returned to Earth for a proper burial, at home. "This must all seem silly to you."

"What?"

"Religious rituals. You know, religion itself."

"Why would I think that?"

His answer surprised me, I had expected a smart-ass remark about monkeys worshipping trees. "Because the beings who created you were ancient and super powerful, and uh-"

"Joe, Joe, Joe." I could visualize Skippy shaking his lid at me. "The Elders were indeed super powerful, they were able to move stars. Several times, when the path of a star was going to disrupt a solar system that the Elders thought could someday bring forth intelligent life, they towed the offending star out of the way. Once, when a blue giant star threatened to go supernova and flood several surrounding solar systems with deadly radiation, the Elders created a wormhole, and transported the star outside the galaxy. They jumped a super massive star two hundred thousand lightyears through a wormhole. Think about that. Your question assumes that beings so powerful, beings who had effectively achieved immortality, such beings would have no use for religion. You are wrong. Again. Why do you think the Elders left us, transcended?"

"Because," I answered slowly to give myself time to think, "they were bored? With this existence?"